July 2013 Forum Minutes

Posted on by

WORDPLAY FORUM

Minutes of meeting held on Monday 8th July 2013 at ‘Emerald Isle’

Present: Evie Barton, Michael Barton, Jan Davies, Nikki Dee, John Francis, Peter Hayward, Maggie Hegarty, Migel Jayasinghe, Joy Lennick, Drummond Marvin, Kathy Rollinson, Margaret Rowland, Joanna Rich, Georgia Varjas and Gerry Wright.

Apologies:  Linda Kiss

1.      Welcome

Michael welcomed new and returning members:  Migel, John, Joanna and Janet.  Each person introduced themselves and gave us an insight into their work and experience.  Michael explained that they were joining a diverse and talented group with experience in many different genres.

Michael requested an up- to- date list of e mails and telephone numbers.

2.      Royalties

Monies were distributed.  In June, every book on the list was sold via Kindle.  Kindle books are outselling tree-books by four to one.

3.       Website

It is presumed that prospective readers have visited the site and looked at the Anthology.  There have not been many sales of “Shorts for Autumn” but this has linked them to the novels of authors listed and has resulted in sales.

Since the first quarter, the number of hits on the website has increased exponentially. The ultimate target is for 1000 hits per day to the WordPlay website.

4.       Publishing

Michael has published a collection of Ian’s articles from CBN:  “Keep Write On”.  50% of the royalties will be contributed to the Ian Govan Award and the other 50% will be donated to Alzheimer’s.

Next year Michael has offered to publish a book for a Children’s Charity for free in exchange for acknowledgement of Wordplay Publishing.

5.      Marketing/Publicity

At the last meeting, members were asked to research marketing/publicity opportunities.  Kathy filled in the forms for Kinship.com but this contact was unsatisfactory.

Georgia has gone down a different road.  She is a member of Toastmasters and has promoted her books at these meetings.  There are Spanish members and, because they want to become proficient in the language, they are interested in English authors and books.  She is doing two University gigs in September and, from past experience, is confident she will sell more of her books. Self- marketing requires a lot more effort but is proving successful for Georgia.

Gerry called in to the Euro Weekly offices in Benijofar concerning Wordplay’s Award but there has been no feedback.  U3A will mention the group and the Award on their Website and will include a link to ours.

The overriding message was that members have to fully utilise social media in order to sell themselves and their writing:  blogs, websites, facebook, and twitter.  Members have to use strategies to get their books into ratings:  interact with readers by enabling fans to contact characters from novels on facebook; offer your book free on Kindle for a few days; or offer three books for the price of two.

Michael helped Jan with the publishing of “Truth Hurts”.  She put it on to Kindle and the original price was £1. She then raised it to £1.98 and put it on for free for two days.  Her strategies paid off and her sales ratings increased. Jan highlighted the advantages of using Goodreads, a free website for book lovers, and members are urged to review each other’s books.

Members then detailed their efforts to publicise their work and Wordplay:

Georgia has approached Talk Radio Europe and has set up a pre-recorded interview.

Cathy has investigated Sunshine Radio with a view to publicity.  Sunshine Radio invites local people to contribute.  As Michael is away for a month, it was decided to postpone this until early autumn.

Nikki has produced a press release and has submitted it to several publications.  Michael read it to the group and it was agreed that it hit the spot:  targets audience; has a personal angle; and advertises her novels and short stories.

Carol Naylor, a former member of Wordplay, has approached Michael and offered to review books.  She produces reviews and enters them on different websites.  She is interested in promoting local authors and will not charge for reviewing our work.

6.      Future Plans

Linda Kiss would like us to consider holding a Book Week next year.  We need to start thinking about this and Linda wishes to include it on the next agenda.

Action Points:

  • Bring ideas for a ‘Book Week’ to the next meeting in September.

Ian Govan Award – Writers are invited to write a novel, in any genre; the name of the hero has to be Ian.  Ian’s point was that it was a very unlikely name for a hero.  Entrants should submit first three chapters and a character study of the hero, Ian.

In November Michael is visiting England and Scotland and will be involved in a tour of writing groups.  He will be promoting Wordplay Publishing and, hopefully, spread the message in the U.K.

Date of Next Meeting:  Monday September 9th

2 thoughts on “July 2013 Forum Minutes”

  1. Very interesting! My apologies for being unable to attend the next meeting as planned. (I came last week – on the wrong day!). This is obviously a go-getting club and bodes well for the future. As an occasional visitor, your minutes are very much appreciated!
    Members may like to know that a freelance reporter covered my story (the basis of ‘John, Dementia and Me’ – my novel available at Bargain Books) in the magazine of the Sunday Express. As it’s the magazine you can’t get copies in Spain – but you can in England – any spare copies would be gratefully received! This all started with my sending a press release to local papers in England.

Leave a comment